Day 74 - We Depart the Shenandoahs

Tuesday, June 16th - Up at 6:30, and (once Bill fired up his laptop) I checked email for a little while. Accepted invitations from Pauline and Ted for various picnic-parties going on this Saturday night (I'll try to hit both if I'm still conscious). Reasonable looking day outside to start, nearly 70 degrees to start - it will be cooler on the mountaintops, though). Mark got up around 7:30, and also checked his email. Bill prepared us an excellent (and large) breakfast (he's a pretty good cook!)

We loaded up just after 8:00, and headed back up to Gravel Spring parking lot, arriving about 9:05 or so. It was a very misty/foggy drive on the way up, and only 61 degrees when we arrived. There were two females in the lot when we showed up; they were awaiting a shuttle ride, and thought we were it - apparently, the guy was supposed to have been there at 8:30, so they were getting a little antsy. Even my phone had zero bars, so we couldn't help them, but Bill was willing to give them a ride if they were giving up on the guy (I don't know how that played out). We saddled up and - after a few photos and a lot of thank-you's - we headed back up the trail.

We had a couple of stiff climbs to start, over South and then North Marshall peaks, then over Compton Peak, kicking out a few deer on the way. The weather cleared up pretty well, to mostly sunny skies. But it was pretty humid yet. At Compton Gap, we separated for the last time from the Skyline Drive, and headed towards the north end of the park (about 2 miles north). We knew we had reached the park boundary when we passed another self-serve entrance station. The trails then became a mixed bag of "good" and rocky. We stopped at the badly named Tom Floyd "Wayside" - which in fact is just another shelter, not a real wayside such as those in the Shenandoah National Park - signed in, and moved on.

Approaching Rt. 522, we passed the National Zoo's Conservation & Research Center (surrounded by an 8 foot chain-link fence - Ed. The CRC just had the first litter of Clouded Leopard cubs born in captivity in 16 years); we did not see any animals, exotic or otherwise. In addition, although we passed several trails along the way, there was no sign for the Front Royal 4-H Center (home of the Hike-o-Ree). Crossed Rt. 522, came up a long incline and then a long flat, passing the Mosby Primitive Campsite (we didn't stop). Finally arrived at the Jim n Molly Denton Shelter (near 6:00) - a very impressive place, with a separate (covered) eating area, privvy, bear pole, campsites, spring, etc. Probably the most impressive "total" shelter we have seen to date, even though the shelter itself was only medium sized. No one there. We checked the weather band radio, and heard that heavy rain showers were expected after midnight, so we elected to stay in the shelter (also, the bug problem here was minimal compared to some shelters we had stayed at the past week or so). "Lone Wolf" (another through-hiker who we hadn't seen before) showed up a while later, then two southbound section hikers came in around 8:30; that was it for the night. So, between 18 and 19 miles done today - not bad since we hadn't started til 9:15. However, tomorrow sounds like it will be a slog.